'Shame and silence reached a sort of crescendo during the recent conference of the Labour Party. Hundreds of liberal people stood and clapped for the Prime Minister, it was reported, for seven and a half minutes. Choreographed in their pretence, like the surviving stoics of a sect, they applauded his unctuous abuse of the only truth that mattered: that he had committed a huge and bloody crime, in their and our name. It was a shocking spectacle.' -- John Pilger

With the end of the Tory Party Conference last week we saw the end of the boring party political season, at least for the three main political parties. Did the mainstream media have nothing better to report? For the three main parties, it was about power, power for them to retain or gain power. For the Tories and Neo-Labour it was about the leader remaining in power. The people did not figure at all, for Neo-Labour, even their own members did not seem to count.

The Lib-Dems were rejoicing in their massive win at Brent East. A meaningless win, as few people voted and it was clearly a choice between not voting at all or Lib-Dems. If there was a winner at Brent East, it was the non-voting party.

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2003/09/277796.html

Before the Neo-Labour Conference even got started Liar Blair made it clear he would ignore anything from the conference that was contrary to his own messianic views. In his speech to conference, he repeated much of the same, he was right and the rest of the world was wrong. Gordan Brown upstaged anything that was to come from Blair, by appealing to the dinosaurs of Old Labour. Are people's memories so short? We have had vicious attacks by Brown on the poor, especially unemployed, and single parents, student fees have been hiked, and pensioners have not done too well either. The one issue that mattered to the grass roots, Iraq, was barred from the agenda. A vote on Foundation Hospitals (back door privatisation) was lost, but the wishes of the membership were to be ignored. Liar Blair received a 7 ½ minute standing ovation, the delegates were told how long to clap and cheer, and like obedient sheep they did as they were told. No votes of no confidence in the leader, no leadership challenges. At the very least the delegates could have received Blair in stony-faced silence. The only place for Messianic Blair, is not at the rostrum at a party conference, but dangling at the end of a rope as a convicted war criminal.

There may have been some policies at the Tory conference, but no one took them seriously, least of all the delegates. There was only one topic, when will Ian Duncan Smith get ousted as leader. The usual crap as we heard from Liar Blair, back me or sack me. Post-conference, there is to be a Nazi-style witch hunt of those who dared challenge the leader.

At all three party conferences you would have searched in vane for any attempt at serving the people of this country, let alone transferring power to the people, where it belongs.

The one thing we can guarantee for the next election: votes for Neo-Labour will fall, but they will not go the way of the Tories, who are even worse than Neo-Labour. People will simply stay at home and not vote, or if they do vote, they will cast their votes into the officially sanctioned electoral dustbin, and vote Lib-Dem. At the last election, which officially sanctioned history says was a landslide for Neo-Labour, Neo-Labour got less of the popular vote than did the Tories at the last election under the leadership of John Major.

We live in a democracy. Democracy, what democracy.

But it does not have to be so. There can be change, if enough people are willing to force change.

Representative democracy is not working, where we elect near-identical clones of big business, there to do the bidding of their corporate masters.

We have to move to participatory democracy, follow the example of Zapatistas in Chiapas, the Workers Party in Porto Alegre, and the grass roots revolts in Argentina. We have to create our own autonomous space and run it as we see fit.

 http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/zapatistas.htm
 http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/pt.htm
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2003/06/272765.html

Politics is too important to be left to politicians. The only role for politicians, if they are to have any role at all, is to provide a framework within which participatory democracy operates.

For those who feel this is an impossible dream, anything is possible if enough people demand it.

We once had slavery, rule by absolute monarchs, women did not have a vote. Things change if enough people demand it.

The time is ripe world-wide for change. We may not get this opportunity again for another generation. The last time the opportunity arose was in the late 1960s. And then it was mainly France, UK and USA. Now it is worldwide and lessons have been learnt.

The anti-globalisation movement has shown what can be achieved. The WTO was stopped in its tracks at Seattle, the neoliberal free trade agenda collapsed at Cancun. The anti-war movement may not have stopped the war, but it certainly influenced the course of events and has created the climate whereby Bush and Blair far from being able to bask in the glory of war heroes, are facing growing criticisms with each passing day. Criticism which even the normally complaint mainstream media can no longer ignore.

Power is not given, it is taken.

A manifesto has been published for the new revolution. A manifesto to be distributed widely, to be distributed worldwide. It may not be perfect, it will need to be repeatedly revised, it will need to be adapted to suit particular local circumstances, but it is a start.

 http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/democracy.htm

Keith Parkins, A sense of the masses - a manifesto for the new revolution, October 2003

Keith Parkins, Brent East, Indymedia UK, 19 September 2003

John Pilger, The Fall and Rise of Liberal England, New Statesman, 9 October 2003

Residents to reclaim park from ‘terror gang’, Indymedia UK, 3 October 2003